Free Blood in the Water (Kairos) by Catherine Johnson

present from Jason on her sixteenth birthday.  He’d presented her with the black velvet box while they’d been sitting on his bed in the trailer he called home while his father was at the clubhouse continuing the drinking that the adults had all started at her party that night.  Her parents had thought she’d been tucked up safely in her own bed. In reality she’d spent the night in Jason’s, scrambling through her bedroom window in the early hours before they realized she’d been missing.
     
    Now, at twenty-three, she was marrying her college sweetheart.  She and Matthew were supposed to be embarking on a long and happy life together, if Ashleigh could shake off this feeling of foreboding.  Once upon a time she had hoped that she’d be marrying Jason Palmer. But Jason wasn’t the person he used to be anymore, and he’d never be that person again.  He’d been out of the hospital a little over a year now.  He’d signed up to the Marine Corps straight out of high school, scant months before the attacks on the Twin Towers ensured he would see plenty of active duty.  He’d been on tour in Afghanistan when he’d received a head wound from part of a mortar round.  He’d been in a coma for months.  Even now his speech still slurred when he was anxious or angry and his mood swings were dizzying.  He’d almost overcome the weakness in his limbs and the balance problems, so much so that he was back on his Harley, but he wasn’t the young man she’d known and loved, although their friendship still ran deep.
     
    Ashleigh shook herself physically as well as mentally.  The limo would be waiting; she’d have to get moving.  Today was a day for hope, for aspiration.  She should be looking forward, not back.  Today was the start of the plans that she and Matthew had made.  They had their house, they were doing well in their studies and careers and they intended that children would be part of their near future.  Just for today she’d paint a smile on her face, hold her head up high and do her best to enjoy it all.  She might even make it through without murdering Shirley and Aunt Dolly.  The only reason they weren’t hovering now with their instructions and chivvying guidance was that she’d been getting so flushed she was in danger of ruining her makeup, and the only thing that had calmed her down was emptying her parents’ house almost entirely of people.
     
    She had been still and silent so long that the soft knock at the door made her jump.  It opened to reveal her father, but he pulled up short before he’d made it all the way into the room.
     
    “It’s time, sweetheart.... Oh!  Oh, baby bird.  Oh, you are a sight.  You’re so beautiful.  I love you, darlin’.”
     
    Ashleigh blushed at the expression of wonder on his face.  “I love you too, Daddy.”
     
    Her daddy coughed, and she realized his eyes were wet.  “I’m so proud of you.  I’ve always been proud of you.  You haven’t always had it easy bein’ my daughter.  I know it was hard for you when I was in prison.  I know you didn’t have it easy at school.  I’m so goddamn proud you’ve come through all that and built a good life for yourself.”
     
    Ashleigh didn’t really want to think about those dark times in her childhood, but now that he’d brought them up she couldn’t shove the emotions that came hand in hand with those memories back down.  Everything was too raw today, too near the surface, her hold on it all too tenuous for her not to let it all out.  The best she could do was to keep her eyes wide to try and stop the tears from smudging the mascara and eyeliner.
     
    “I was so mad at you sometimes, Daddy...” 
     
    Her father looked stricken.  “Baby bird...”
     
    Ashleigh cut him off with a shake of her head, feeling the weighty pull of her pinned hair.  “No, it doesn’t matter now.  I never wanted you to know ‘cause I love you so much and I was so happy when you came home, but I